CHAPTER 9

Team-Talk, Group Discussion and Interviews

Chapter Objectives

This chapter discusses the importance of talking effectively among members of a team and the dynamics of such a talk including conflict management. It spells out different team types. It distinguishes and explains the different roles which members of a team take on at different times. The chapter also deals extensively with the dynamics of group discussion and interview.

IMPORTANCE OF TALK IN A TEAM

Teamwork, as we all know, has become a very important part of corporate work culture today. Forming the right kind of team, causing the right chemistry to work and creating the right working atmosphere form an important part of getting the right results. It is very important, thus, to have a proper understanding of a team. One effective way of recognizing a well-struck team is to understand team-talk. Teams work together through conversations, whatever the channel might be – phone, fax, mail or face-to-face.

Language plays a very important role in teamwork. It reflects and even creates thoughts and feelings in both the speaker and the listener. It enhances or diminishes relationships, works towards learning and problem-solving in a team. Talk is also an indicator of how the team relates itself to the organization. It provides a perspective of the team dynamics – how the team members think, feel and act with one another. Look at the following statements:

• I am a team player, but I want rewards to be individual.
• I feel my image suffers by their lack of performance.
• The team leaders here are not experienced in managing conflict.
• I have the primary responsibility for the product, but I'm also dependent on them to achieve my own objectives.

All these are statements often heard and expressed during teamwork. They show the inevitability of individual initiative and responsibility along with the necessity of teamwork. They also reveal a paradox between independence and interdependence, a primary contradiction that all teams have inbuilt in their structure. Team members necessarily have difference in terms of knowledge, skills and experience. Without these differences, in fact, it is difficult to manage a team task. At the same time, it is also necessary that these differential factors are combined and integrated as one.

The paradox in a team is the contradiction between differentiation and integration. Similar is the case with identity and interdependence. Every member enters the team as a specialist with a distinct identity. But at the same time, a group can function well only if the members can effectively depend on one another. For group work, individual and independent judgement is as important as group thinking. The third paradox every team operates with is the paradox of trust. Team members have to trust one another while at the same time, remain vigilant. There has to be the right balance between trust and scrutiny. While trust, in this context, is very important for the collective functioning of the team, a constant testing and assessment of others' opinion is also important.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

In teamwork, conflict is both inevitable and desirable. But at the same time, it is true that conflict has to be tactfully managed and circumvented. Researchers have identified four different kinds of tactics used to manage conflict. These are avoidance, accommodation, compromise and collaboration. The linguistic signs of accommodation, avoidance and collaborative tactics include soliciting all members' views and preferences, redefining compromise and recording problems, mentioning other problems to breakaway from the conflict situations, etc. Conflict management is also done through negotiation. Negotiation, in this context, predominantly insists on only two distinct processes among negotiators: Win-lose and win-win. The former focuses on the competitive aspect while the latter seeks to integrate parties and viewpoints. Linguistically, a win-lose orientation is manifest through explicit expressions of position, words that refer to debt, concession, winning and losing. A win-win process, however, is shown through elaboration of ideas, exploration of the other's ideas and re-evaluation or re-framing of one's own interests in the light of others. The following are some of the language patterns that are used generally in win-lose and win-win situations.

Examples of expressions that show either win-loss or win-win form:

Win-Lose Forms: These expressions show the positions we take up and competitive spirit.	We have always said we need our supply before we consider your demand
	We'll be out-selling everyone soon
Win-Win Forms: These statements show attempts to balance needs, considering a number of other strategies, etc.	As long as I can stay within our budget, I can go ahead with this.
	What if we justified the trip?
	What feedback do we all need to have to ensure that this joint proposal passes?

COMMUNICATION IN TEAMS

The previous discussion concentrated on the different kinds of teams, the nature of interaction between them and the linguistic identifiers to recognize the team type. Along with deciphering the talk, it is also important to understand the kinds of roles the team members play in a team. This is important because the role-type determines their talk in more ways than one. You must have noticed during any team talk that someone in the team initiates the discussion, some people add information and when the discussion gets serious, someone cracks a joke to relieve the tension. Some people with their general goodwill hold the team together, while some become the unappointed norm keepers.

Role-Taking in Teams: Task Roles, Building Roles, Maintenance and Negative Roles

It is important to note that the kinds of roles people take up will in turn, determine the kind of language they use and the kind of attitude they adopt. The roles people take up during a discussion can be divided into_Task Roles, Building Roles, Maintenance and Negative Roles. They can be summed up as the following:

Task Roles

Task roles include the communication functions necessary for a group to accomplish its task. Roles in which we perform different tasks in the team like the initiator, the information giver, the collaborator, the orienter and the evaluator are seen as task roles. These tasks can involve us in problem-solving, decision-making, exchange of information or conflict resolution.

Building and Maintenance Roles

These roles build and sustain the group's interpersonal relationships, helping everyone to feel more positive about the group's task and interact constructively and harmoniously. These roles include those that keep the team together like the harmonizer who compromises differences; tension reliever who induces humour; norm-keeper who ensures that norms are followed and the solidarity builder, who expresses and creates positive feelings reinforcing group cohesiveness.

Negative Roles

Intra-team behaviour may also be negative and self-centered in nature. These are the roles that are not constructive for the groups. They prioritize self-interest over group-interest. They are:

Blocker : a blocker constantly objects to ideas or suggestions, insisting that nothing will work. He may also repeatedly bring up the same topic or issue after the group has considered and rejected it.

Aggressor : this is the kind who insults and criticizes others and shows jealousy and ill will.

Storyteller : this is the one who tells irrelevant, often time-consuming stories and enjoys discussing personal experiences.

Recognition seeker : this is the kind that interjects comments that calls attention to his achievements and successes.

Dominator : this is the one who tries to monopolize group interaction.

Non-contributor : a non-contributor is reticent, uncommunicative and fails to respond to other's comments. He refuses to cope with conflict or take a stand on an issue.

Confessor : he is the kind who attempts to use the group as a therapeutic session and asks the group to listen to personal problems.

Special-interest pleader : he represents the interests of different groups and pleads on their behalf.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS (GD)

A group discussion is an exchange of information, opinions, views, perspectives and ideas about a topic among members of a group. There is no particular number of participants that has to constitute the discussion group. But generally it has been found that in a group of ten or more some tend to avoid participation. But a group of five or less suffers from a lack of diversity of opinion and knowledge. Between five and nine can be therefore considered to be an appropriate number. As the discussion proceeds, one of the participants may emerge as a leader.

The expectation is that there will be smooth flow of information and interaction, and finally they can arrive at an agreed solution or strategy of action. A GD is an exercise and test of both your speaking and listening skills, in addition to being an experience of group dynamics in a face-to-face situation.

An effective GD is one where there is an equitable distribution of participation by all instead of being focused on individuals. Some participants may be very shy and inhibited, others may be very aggressive and dominating and a few others may be downright unruly, abrasive and disruptive. The success of a GD is ensured only if the members maintain certain decorum, discipline, harmony and balance.

GDs have become important in job selections as well as for admissions to professional courses. During the discussion, the candidates are generally judged for intellectual ability, creativity, and approach to problems, qualities of leadership, tolerance and group behaviour. In real life, group discussions contribute much to problem-solving.

To make a group discussion successful, it is important to pay attention to the following points:

• Content

  To make an impact in a group discussion, it is important to have a good knowledge of the topic given. It is important thus that you have fairly good general knowledge and awareness of the current situation. This will prevent the ideas from drying up fast and keeps the discussion alive and lively. If you are entirely unfamiliar with the topic given, wait for someone else to come up with important information and facts. Then quickly formulate your stance and come in with your perspective.

• Communication

  Along with the knowledge of content it is very important to know how you can communicate them effectively. It always helps to have a good grasp of vocabulary and fluency in speech. Using the right word at the right time gives clarity to the discussion and also highlights your role in generating ideas in the group. Remember not to exhaust your ideas at one go. Every time you contribute, make your talk brief and relevant. It is better to break into the discussion more number of times with a new idea each time rather than exhausting all your points the first time itself.

• Thinking

  Thinking is one of the important activities that have to go on during a group discussion. During a discussion you have to listen and understand the arguments of the other participants and at the same time decide what points you should raise and how. A good discussion always involves a lot of networking. And networking involves active thinking, building on one another's points, negotiating, persuading and collating views.

• Group behaviour

  Group behaviour is one of the qualities that is put to test during a group discussion. In fact group discussions are conducted to test initiative-taking abilities, leadership qualities and capacity to coordinate diverse viewpoints. Although expressing your views emphatically will be appreciated in a G.D, it is equally important that you draw the more reticent participants into the discussion and involve them in the decision-making process.

STRUCTURING THE GD

Here are a few language tips that will help in structuring the group discussion:

Entering a discussion

Make comments on previous contributions and show your relation to them. You may have to change the trend of discussion by agreement, disagreement, amplification or by restricting the scope of the discussion.

Opening

We 're here today to discuss....

Let's decide how to proceed about the discussion.

Let's start off with no.1.

Can you please give your views on…?

Comments

What I think is…

I feel that…

The main point I wish to make is…

I agree up to a certain point but…

I must disagree with your opinion…

I would question that whether…

It seems to me that…

As far as I'm concerned…

I don't agree with the previous speaker…

Please, let me finish.

I think we are moving away from the main point.

If I may turn, now, to…

I want to comment briefly on…

I intend to make… points about…

Now, to elaborate on the first point…

I strongly believe that…

With all due respect…

If we look at it in another light…

On the contrary…

I don't think any one could disagree with…

I can't help thinking…

Successful Group Discusion

A good and successful group discussion is one where the topic has been discussed threadbare. To ensure that, do the following:

• Analyze the topic word by word. Identify the frame of reference you would be using during the discussion.
• Look at the topic from the point of view of all the affected parties.
• Look at the topic from all the various angles and all possible perspectives.
• At the end of a discussion or when you know that the discussion time is up, it is necessary to give an appropriate conclusion. To do this, quickly try to recap the important points that have come up during the discussion, emphasize the points on which there were differences and where there was convergence of opinion and make the concluding remark.

Try to bring around six people together and discuss these topics for around twenty minutes each.

INTERVIEWS

Viewpoint

The mention of interview creates nervousness in many people. There are not many who are undisturbed by the idea of facing an interview. In fact, in our day-to-day lives, we go through interview-like situations very regularly without being conscious of them. For instance, when sitting in a railway waiting room for your train to arrive, you may possibly start a conversation with the person in the adjacent chair. You may talk about your names, destinations, occupations, etc. When you visit your doctor, you are once again in an interview mode. The doctor asks for the details of your problems in order to diagnose and treat you. Many such situations happen all the while and we deal with them easily, quite free of tension. However, while facing a formal interview for admission or recruitment we are very conscious of the situation. Such interviews require a great deal of mental preparation.

Interview is a head-to-head interpersonal role situation in which the interviewer asks the interviewee specific questions with the purpose of assessing the interviewee's suitability for admission, recruitment, or promotion, or for an opinion. Hence an interview is a psycho-social instrument. It is an organized method of contact with a person to know his or her views. It is regarded as one of the important methods of data collection.

Major Purposes of an Interview

1. Collecting information Face-to-Face

   An interview is a direct technique of accumulating data by the interviewer. Its advantage is that lots of information needed in social and scientific research or assessment can be compiled from the respondents, only on the basis of direct questioning.

2. Hypothesis Formation

   An interview is an investigative device to help identify variables and relations to suggest a hypothesis and to guide different phases of the research. This is relevant only to interviews for research.

3. Value-Based Qualitative Facts

   Social facts are essentially qualitative in nature. They are expressed in the form of ideas, feelings, views, faith, and beliefs. These social facts are both individual as well as collective. The interview method is an effective way to collect qualitative facts.

4. Additional Information

   By this method, we can accumulate from respondents, additional information that we often get through normal schedule or questionnaire. There are persons who are capable of providing additional information or suggestions and this can be done well through the interview method. This is possible as there is a direct dialogue with the respondents.

Significance of the Interview Method

1. Getting Information about Feelings: No other method of social research provides better information about a person's feelings, emotions and sentiments than an interview.
2. Securing information from persons of varying levels: The questionnaire method is useful only for the literate. Sometimes, questionnaires cannot elicit the required response from persons of different levels of intelligence. This disadvantage is surmounted by the interview method.
3. Psychological study: It is a psychological and scientific technique of observation which helps the interviewer to understand the person he is interviewing.
4. Mutual motivation: As a result of two or more persons coming in contact during an interview they motivate and enliven one another mentally. This helps the respondent to give the answers that are required of him. By observing the respondents closely, an interviewer can ascertain some aspects of the candidate's behaviour.
5. Verification: Information obtained through questionnaires and observation cannot be verified easily. However in an interview, it is possible to verify the information that has been gathered from sources like the CV or the application form.

TECHNIQUES OF INTERVIEWING

There are different types of interview techniques that are designed. Companies, government organizations, autonomous bodies, and private organizations shortlist candidates in a variety of ways. The different interview techniques are:

Series Interview

A company or a government organization selects its candidates through a series of interviews where the candidate has to face several people, individually, in succession rather than facing them all in a group. Each interviewer submits his/her report and the reports are compared to arrive at the final decision. The series interview is useful if there are a number of candidates to be interviewed for a job. It would be difficult for a panel of experts or senior managers to interview all of them in a limited time.

Filter Interview

In this, the applicants who do not have the minimum required qualifications are filtered out. If there are a large number of candidates who qualify, the minimum criteria are revised in order to recommend not more than a fixed number of candidates for further selection procedures. The filter interview may be done face-to-face, by phone, or some other method.

Set Interview

In such an interview, the interviewers ask all the candidates the same set of questions. It is a structured form of interview in which computers may be used to store, retrieve, and compare the data provided by the candidates. In a set interview, candidates do not talk to one another and do not disclose the questions.

Simulation Interview

The attempt in this is to simulate the conditions under which the job needs to be done. A situation is imaginarily created and the candidate is asked to demonstrate his/her skills and traits in dealing with the situation. The interviewer poses ‘if’ and ‘when’ questions to assess the candidate's reactions. Such interviews consist of just two or three situational questions. The answers need to be given carefully. It is better to express lack of knowledge about a situation than to pretend knowledge.

Spot-Calibre Interview

This kind of interview tests a candidate's mettle to find out how he would respond to difficult situations. In this, the chairperson after the initial formalities, indicates to a panelist to begin the interview. The candidate is subjected to stress by one or more of the following methods.

• being asked many questions at a time;
• being asked further questions without being given adequate time to respond;
• being interrogative in a dominating tone and voice, and
• being asked an irrelevant set of questions;
• being asked a provocative set of questions;

In this, it is better to stay calm and ask for time to answer the questions. The tone must be guarded and there must be no retort or retaliation or angry responses.

Panel/Board/Committee Interview

This is the most common type. An interview committee is set up with members from administration, finance, management and subject-specific experts. The chairperson of the panel conducts the interview with the help of the members and experts.

PREPARING FOR AN INTERVIEW

The following points must be borne in mind when presenting oneself for an interview.

Time Management

You must ensure that you are punctual. You must report for the interview at least half-an-hour before the given time. Punctuality creates a good impression and if you are on time you will be cool, calm and collected. If you find that you are going to be late for the interview, try to inform the concerned office so that the interview can be rescheduled. Be polite to everyone you meet both before and after the interview as this will also help you retain your balance.

Appearance

First impressions are immediately formed by our appearance. A smart and pleasant appearance enables you to gain a favourable impression from the board. It is essential to be well-dressed and well-groomed. The clothes you wear must look neither too casual nor uncomfortably formal. They must have a washed and ironed look. Footwear should feel comfortable and be polished.

Body Language

A candidate's body language tells us a lot about personality type. Stooping shoulders and bent forward back are signals that signify subservience and a lack of confidence. You should walk into the room and sit down with a straight back posture. Ask permission to sit by saying, “May I sit down?” Shake hands with a firm grip while maintaining eye contact and a smile. Your handshake is a basic act of friendliness. Therefore, a domineering handshake will irritate the interviewers who will subconsciously feel intimidated. Also, if your handshake is floppy, you could be considered a weakling.

A pleasing appearance with a little smile enhances your personality. A smile is like an antibiotic to the many of man's problems. A frowning, tired, or harsh expression can irritate the interviewer. You must therefore try to look cheerful and confident.

A good interviewee listens keenly, is alert and is able to draw the interviewer's attention as well. Attentiveness means being in tune with the other person's needs, wants and questions. It is being sensitive and treating each and every person in a special, distinctive way that recognizes his/her individuality. Good listening skills are vital if one wants an interaction to be effective because most people, in general, love to talk to those who listen to them keenly.

Communication Skill

Once you start speaking, it improves upon or negates the first impression made by your appearance and body language. Hence, effective speaking includes both content and delivery. Delivery refers to your tone, voice, choice of words and phrases. A candidate can make a better impression if the pitch of the voice is modulated, well based on syllable stress and context.

Enthusiasm

A candidate is given more quality attention from the board if he/she expresses more enthusiasm during the interview. Enthusiasm is reflected in the energetic way you express your ideas. You should never be laid-back or playful, but maintain all along a cheerful disposition and a pleasant appearance.

Brevity

Effective communication does not mean speaking in a garrulous and flowery language. Authentic communication means speaking briefly with clarity and in an unambiguous way. A talkative person is often taken lightly.

Listen Carefully

Very often people do not exercise patience to listen to others as they are anxious to speak or express themselves. Listening is the mother of all communication as it pleases the speaker as well as orients you positively. You can more so understand the question properly and give appropriate response. Try not to speak before the question is completed.

Be Honest

You should never attempt to deceive the interviewers by telling lies. If you do not know the answer, it is correct to acknowledge it. You gain respect for your integrity and honesty. You can tactfully steer the interview to areas that are familiar to you.

Adapt Yourself

It is always useful to keep the interest of the interviewer intact. An element of enterprise is always helpful in facing an interview. You must have an idea about the interests of the interviewer and talk about it. If the interest of the interviewer seems to decrease, you can trigger his interest by making appropriate change in your tone, by lowering or raising your voice, or by speaking faster or slower.

Maintain Proportion and Poise

You should answer informatively but not consume much time. The interviewer may ask general question such as, “I would like to talk a little about your home background”. Do not give monosyllabic answers or ramble. Yet, do not talk so much that you may weaken your candidature.

Demonstrate Leadership Qualities

You ought to exhibit initiative, willingness, and resourcefulness. You ought to demonstrate team spirit, cooperation, organizational skill, strength of character, and more importantly, a strong decision-making ability. Diffidence, selfishness, and a withdrawn nature will be counterproductive.

KINDS OF QUESTIONS EXPECTED AT INTERVIEWS

Alec Rodger came out with a discussion on interviews and said that interview questions fall under seven headings. These are (1) physique, (2) attainments, (3) general intelligence, (4) aptitudes, (5) interests, (6) disposition, and (7) circumstances.

Physique consists of health, appearance, manners and other related aspects of personality. Attainments include educational achievements and experience. General intelligence is seen as a broad area of common sense. Aptitudes comprise mechanical, verbal, musical, or artistic skills. Interests comprise outlook and hobbies. Disposition includes personality and related aspects like acceptability, whether you are self-motivated, whether you are dominant or submissive, extrovert or introvert, etc. Circumstances give a pointer to the interviewer to put your achievements in a perspective.

Nonetheless, the expected questions fall within four groups:

Leading Questions

These generally have a response built into them. Normally, the chairperson begins the interview with these leading questions. An interviewer is usually friendly and cooperative; he would like the candidate to feel at ease. Such questions help a candidate feel comfortable and confident to do well.

Open-Ended Questions

These questions usually come after the leading questions. The purpose of these questions is to help a candidate to talk, explain, and illustrate something that he/she knows or has done before.

Probing Questions

These questions measure your depth of understanding. These questions are intended to test how you would react to a situation or how you would organize follow-up questions.

Close-Ended Questions

These questions try to elicit information on specific items and to test your knowledge of facts and figures.

THE INTERVIEW PROCESS

Step 1: Initiation of the Interview

The interviewer's task is not to bamboozle the candidate but to get the best out of him. Normally, therefore, the interview begins with encouraging, lively questions. There are many methods of initiating an interview; some of them are discussed below.

Initiation based on candidate's background : In many cases the chairperson tries to begin the interview with questions relating to the educational or the family background of the candidate. He may enquire about the place the candidate belongs to, its important places, features or persons. The purpose is to break the ice, make the candidate feel at ease and to make the process of interview interesting for the candidate.

Initiation based on the candidate's interests and hobbies : The chairperson could put a question relating to the candidate's field of interest. Candidates must be honest in mentioning their hobbies and interests. Wrong information could lead to a question, the answer to which may not be known to the candidate.

Initiation based on general knowledge : Sometimes the member may initiate the interview with questions that test the general awareness of the candidate. This is a tough beginning. Questions may be asked on subjects from the evolution theory to the www, from nuclear proliferation to the current visit of the PM, from global climate to the problem of living styles etc. Thus, candidates must work hard and possess wide knowledge on a variety of subjects. They should read newspapers and magazines regularly, listen to news, and discuss current affairs with friends and relatives regularly.

Initiation based on academic topics : This method is actually convenient for the candidates because the questions asked are relating to subjects of specific interest to the candidate. He/she should, therefore, be thorough with the basics, fundamental concepts, and the latest information regarding the discipline concerned. He/she must develop the confidence to explain or clarify any related question.

Initiation based on tricky questions : Sometimes, the interview can begin with perplexing questions. Such questions are meant to measure the ability of the candidate in an awkward situation. Candidates ought to remain calm under such circumstances.

Step II: Investigating the Tenor of Behaviour

Since an interview is an appraisal of the total personality of the candidate, it is essential that the interviewer investigates the implications of the behavioural tenor of the candidate right from beginning to the end of the interview. The dialogues between the interview members and the candidate also reveal many aspects of the candidate's personality.

Step III: Assessing the Candidate's Knowledge and Understanding

The board evaluates the candidate's general knowledge, study of specific subjects, understanding relating to current affairs, interest in and critical awareness of all things happening around. The candidate's ability to apply this knowledge in a given situation or for a social problem is also tested. His ability to organize ideas and information into a coherent concept or approach is also tested. Candidates must make a rigorous study of their subjects and have an up-to-date knowledge of current affairs. For this, they should read editorials and important articles from magazines and newspapers, and go through the analyses ov various topics, either in newspapers or on television.

Step IV: Assessment of Interpersonal and Social Qualities

Generally, the questions asked at different stages of an interview themselves reveal the social personality of the candidate like sense of responsibility, co-operation, adaptability, integrity, group work and persuasiveness. However, the interview board may also ask specific questions which will reveal the above qualities of the candidate.

Step V: All-in-All Assessment

In this last stage of the interview, the board generates a final impression of the candidate. Therefore, some questions may get repeated to judge whether the candidate is consistent and firm in his attitude.

Norms for Assessment of a Candidate

An interview is basically an assessment of the overall personality of a candidate. Personality does not just mean mere outward appearance or intelligence or the ability to get going in a situation; it is a blend of various qualities of mind, body, and spirit. Personality can be categorized under four heads: 1. disposition, 2. knowledge, 3. communication skill, and 4. leadership traits. These four heads can be further classified as given below:

1. Disposition
   1. Appearance
   2. Social manners
   3. Dynamism
   4. Mental power
   5. Overall impression
2. Knowledge
   1. Range of knowledge
   2. Depth of knowledge
   3. Application of knowledge to real situation
   4. Coherence of thought
   5. Overall impression
3. Communication skill
   1. Language
   2. Voice, tone, rhythm
   3. Clarity and logic
   4. Convincing power
   5. Overall impression
4. Leadership traits
   1. Initiative
   2. Organizational skill
   3. Deciding power
   4. Character
   5. Overall impression

      Each basic head can be allotted marks. Negative marking can also be done.

SUMMARY

• Teams work together largely through conversations.
• All teams have in-built in their structure, both independence and interdependence.
• Team members have to trust one another, while remaining vigilant at the same time.
• Acknowledgement of mutual interest, proposals for joint action and soliciting others' views and preferences for taking independent decisions are indicative of the interdependence or independence of the team members.
• Certain language forms like calling one another by their nicknames, using informal pattern of speech, sharing views and showing concern for one another's interests and wants, express closeness among team members.
• Task accomplishing, building a group's interpersonal relationships and maintaining balance in a team are some of the positive roles of individuals in a team.
• A blocker, an aggressor, a storyteller, a recognition seeker, a dominator, a non-contributor, a confessor and a special-interest pleader play negative and self-centered roles within teams.
• A group discussion is an exchange of information, opinions, views, perspectives and ideas about a topic among members of a group and is a test of both speaking, listening skills and group dynamics.
• It is important to network one's ideas, build up the argument and give the discussion a definite direction.
• The appropriate number of participants for a GD is between five and nine and is effective when there is an equitable distribution of participation by all instead of being focused on individuals.
• The success of a GD is ensured only if the members maintain a certain decorum, discipline, harmony and balance. Good listening forms an important part of group discussion.
• GDs have become very important in job selections as well as for admissions to professional courses.
• To make a group discussion successful, it is important to pay attention to the content, communication, thinking, group behaviour and ensure that the topic has been discussed threadbare.
• Interview is an interpersonal role situation with the purpose of assessing the interviewee's suitability for admission, recruitment, or promotion, or for an opinion
• Interview is a psycho-social instrument.
• Preparation for an interview involves improving aspects relating to one's time management, appearance, body language, communication skills, enthusiasm, brevity, listening ability, honesty, adapting power, tendency to maintain proportion and poise and demonstrating leadership qualities.
• Interview questions fall under seven headings—physique, attainments, general intelligence, aptitudes, interests, disposition, and circumstances.

  Interview questions may also be classified under four groups — leading questions,open-ended questions, probing questions and close-ended questions.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. State the inherent and inbuilt contradictions that are present in every team. Explain each of them with examples.
2. What are the different parameters we can use to judge a team? Give a short account of each.
3. Give a detailed account of power differentiation. Show the variables that signify power and explain with illustrations the speech types that corelate with each of them.
4. What are the different ways in which teams manage conflict? Give illustrations to explain each method and show the language forms that go with them.
5. How do interdependence and independence of team members get conveyed?
6. How does closeness among team members manifest itself?
7. What are the different team types?
8. Discuss the term ‘collaborative team’.
9. What are some of the positive roles of individuals in a team?
10. Who are the typical negative role players in a team? Discuss.
11. What is a group discussion and what is its ideal number of participants?
12. What is the importance of turn taking during a group discussion?
13. What is an interview?
14. How should a candidate prepare for an interview?
15. What are the different interview techniques?
16. How many types of interview question have been identified in the chapter?